TOWN OF MANCHESTER ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY STUDY PHASE IV: POLICE DEPARTMENT

Transcription

1 TOWN OF MANCHESTER ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY STUDY PHASE IV: POLICE DEPARTMENT September 2005

2 September 8, 2005 Mr. Steve Werbner General Manager Town of Manchester 41 Center Street Manchester, CT Dear Mr. Werbner: Management Partners Inc. is pleased to submit the report for Phase IV of the Organizational, Effectiveness and Efficiency Study, reviewing the Manchester. The is facing a number of challenges as it implements a new model for police service in the Town. However, the model is the right one and the plan for implementation is sound. It is important to understand that the change to the new model will take time but that determination to move to that goal will ultimately result in success. The department and the Town, working together, have the resources to reach the goal. The recommendations in this report are geared to support the implementation of the service model that the Chief is attempting to establish. We appreciate the participation and assistance from your staff as we conducted our fieldwork, reviewed information and drafted this report. Sincerely, Julia D. Novak Regional Vice President 1730 Madison Road Cincinnati, OH Fax

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...1 POLICE DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION, BUDGET AND STAFFING...3 ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...7 SERVICE PHILOSOPHY AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE...7 STAFFING CONSIDERATIONS...12 RECRUITMENT...31 INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS...33 CONCLUSION...35 ATTACHMENT A KING COUNTY SHERIFF S OFFICE-- TRANSFER HIRING PRACTICE...36

4 TABLES TABLE 1: POLICE DEPARTMENT BUDGET BY FUNCTION...5 TABLE 2: POLICE DEPARTMENT STAFFING BY ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT...6 TABLE 3: SALARY AND AVERAGE GROSS EARNING BY RANK (THROUGH 6/24/05)...10 TABLE 4: STAFFING BY DIRECT SERVICE AND SUPPORT POSITIONS...13 TABLE 5: SAMPLE CALL TYPES BY PRIORITY...14 TABLE 6: OPTIMAL PATROL SHIFT STAFFING...19 TABLE 7: AVERAGE NUMBER OF 911 CENTER CALLS BY DAY OF THE WEEK...25 TABLE 8: AVERAGE NUMBER OF 911 CENTER CALLS BY HOUR OF THE DAY...25 FIGURES FIGURE 1: POLICE DEPARTMENT CURRENT ORGANIZATION...4 FIGURE 2: POLICE DEPARTMENT PROPOSED ORGANIZATION...8

5 Town of Manchester EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Town of Manchester contracted with Management Partners to conduct an organizational review of its. This engagement is Phase IV of an overall effort by the Town to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal operations. The objective of the review is to recommend changes to practices, policies and protocols that will either improve the quality of service without increasing cost, maintain the current quality of service while reducing cost, or incorporate an industry best practice into the Town s operations irrespective of cost impact. The Management Partners project team spent several days on site conducting interviews of key department staff, reviewing policies and procedures, analyzing staffing plans, and reviewing department documents. All department staff was afforded an opportunity to respond to an online survey concerning department strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvements. The online survey responses served as an important data element in formulating some of the recommendations contained in this report. The most significant issue that arose during our review of the Police Department is the Chief s goal of implementing a CompStat model of police service. (CompStat is shorthand for Computerized Comparison of Statistics. ) This widely acclaimed model of police service has proven effective at reducing crime rates in locations where it has been intelligently and appropriately implemented. CompStat is an appropriate model for implementation in Manchester. However, successful implementation will require several critical changes in operations and emphasis. CompStat relies heavily on the rapid collection of demand data, assimilation and analysis of the data into information that identifies patterns and trends of crime, and tactical deployment of resources based on the identified patterns and trends. New organizational structures to facilitate tactical deployment of resources must be implemented. And, a culture that emphasizes prevention, accountability and agility must continue to be developed and nurtured. An additional significant factor that must be addressed is that of position vacancies. In the patrol operation the vacancy factor is currently in excess of 30%. In the next two years another 27 sworn personnel are expected to retire. A short-term plan for dealing with the current and Management Partners, Inc. 1

6 Town of Manchester anticipated vacancies is critical. A long-term plan for maintaining staffing levels near the authorized strength is also necessary. Management Partners, Inc. 2

7 Town of Manchester POLICE DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION, BUDGET AND STAFFING The is currently organized into three bureaus: Field Services, Staff Services and Support Services. In addition, the Office of the Chief includes the Professional Standards and Administration units. The three bureaus are, in turn, composed of the following organizational units: Field Services o Uniformed Patrol o Traffic Services Staff Services o Communications o Training o Budget/Grants Management o Accreditation Support Services o Investigative Services o Tri-Town Narcotics o Records o Maintenance Figure 1 shows the current organizational structure for the Police Department. Management Partners, Inc. 3

8 Town of Manchester FIGURE 1: POLICE DEPARTMENT CURRENT ORGANIZATION Professional Standards Chief of Police Administration Staff Services Field Services Support Services Communications Uniformed Patrol Traffic General Investigations Training Records Accreditation Maintenance Budget/ Grants Management Tri-Town Narcotics The current authorized operating budget for the department is $14,567,220 and is broken down into the following elements: Personal Services $9,650,268 Employee Benefits $3,565,101 Purchased Services $727,651 Supplies $412,073 Equipment $212,127 Management Partners, Inc. 4

9 Table 1 indicates the adopted budget by function. TABLE 1: POLICE DEPARTMENT BUDGET BY FUNCTION Adopted Function Budget Police Administration $997,586 Police Services $8,513,236 Training $251,098 Animal Control $128,935 Investigative Services $1,692,004 Signs and Signals $97,643 Maint./MV/Equip. $160,708 Maint. Buildings and Grounds $263,904 Accident/Record $608,555 Communications $1,066,498 Tri-Town Narcotics $318,378 Traffic Services $468,675 Total $14,567,220 Management Partners, Inc. 5

10 Staffing by organizational unit is shown in Table 2 TABLE 2: POLICE DEPARTMENT STAFFING BY ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT # of Full-Time Positions # of Part-Time FTEs Organizational Unit/Position Title Administration Chief of Police 1 Captain 2 Professional Standards Lieutenant 1 Administration Lieutenant 1 Accreditation Manager 1 Executive Secretary 1 Clerical and Administrative 1 Training Sergeant 1 Patrol Captain 1 Lieutenant 3 Sergeant 12 Patrol Officer 77 Secretary 0.5 Police Service Aide 5 Crossing Guards 9.4 Youth Outreach Workers 0.4 Animal Control Animal Control Officer Investigative Services Lieutenant 1 Sergeant 2 Detective 12 Clerk III 1 Evidence Technician 0.5 Records Account Clerk 1 Data Operator 4 Administrative Records Supvr. 1 Communications Supt. Of Communications 1 Dispatcher 16 Tri-Town Narcotics Sergeant 1 Patrol Officer 2 Traffic Services Sergeant 1 Patrol Officer 4 Maintenance Janitor 2 There are 122 full-time sworn officers, 34 full-time civilians, and (FTEs) civilian positions working part-time. Management Partners, Inc. 6

11 ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Service Philosophy and Organizational Structure In the CompStat model of delivering police service, the emphasis is on problem-oriented policing. Problem-oriented policing places high reliance on analysis of incidents, patterns and trends in crime and the development of tactical responses that will combat and curtail such incidents, patterns and trends. In other words, the emphasis is on crime prevention rather than crime solution. Although solving crime is important, in the CompStat model the need to solve a crime is considered, in a sense, a failure because the emphasis is on preventing crime from occurring. The Chief is embarking upon efforts to implement the CompStat, or problem-oriented policing model, in the Manchester. This is the same model that has been recognized as being effective in bringing down crime rates in many cities in America. Recommendation 1: Implement the CompStat (problem-oriented policing) model in the Manchester. The department is organized into three bureaus, each commanded by a captain. The Field Services Bureau consists of Patrol and Traffic Services. The Support Services Bureau includes Investigative Services, Tri-Town Narcotics, Records and Maintenance. The Staff Services Bureau is made up of Budgets/Grant Management (does not include the Chief, Professional Standards Lieutenant and the Executive Secretary), Communications, Training, and Accreditation. Interviews with the Chief and the three captains revealed that the primary organizational principle giving rise to the current organization structure is an attempt to balance workload among the three captains. While balanced workload is certainly an important factor, it should not be considered the primary organizing focus. This organizing scheme begins with the premise that there are three captains who should have equal amounts of work rather than with an organizing theme that is based primarily on functions and similarities. Management Partners, Inc. 7

12 The CompStat model requires an organization plan that is based on function and similarities, rather than the number of captains. Application of the CompStat model in a department the size of Manchester s dictates two, rather than three bureaus. One bureau would be the Operations Bureau and include Patrol, Investigative Services, Tri-Town Narcotics, Traffic Enforcement, and Animal Control. The second bureau, Support Services, would include Crime Analysis/CompStat Support, Professional Standards, Accreditation, Training, Records, Communications, Maintenance, and Finance. Figure 2 shows the proposed organizational structure for the Police Department. FIGURE 2: POLICE DEPARTMENT PROPOSED ORGANIZATION Chief of Police Deputy Chief Operations Bureau (Captain) Support Services (Captain) Uniformed Patrol Crime Analysis/ Professional Stds. Investigative Services Records/ Communications Tri-Town Narcotics Training Traffic Enforcement Maintenance Animal Control Finance Management Partners, Inc. 8

13 The two-bureau organization plan unifies all of the field resources under a single operational commander. This is necessary to facilitate the optimum tactical deployment of field resources and pinpoint the accountability for crime prevention, two of the bedrock principles of CompStat. The two-bureau scheme also unifies command of the support services that are requisite to an effective CompStat model, especially the crime analysis, records and communications functions. The CompStat model of police service relies on high quality, up-to-date information for its effectiveness in preventing and ultimately reducing crime. Agencies that use CompStat most effectively have an integrated data management system producing high quality information on a daily basis. Communications through the CAD system and records through field/incident reports are the two most important data bases that must be integrated to produce information on extent, time, type, location and disposition of service demand. In short, the CompStat model requires that data generated through communications and records functions be converted into information that is then analyzed, summarized and provided on a daily basis to operational command staff, who then use the information to develop tactics and deployment plans to match the incidents, patterns and trends. In short, CompStat is dependent upon an organizational plan that facilitates crime information analysis and the flexibility of tactical deployment of personnel. Recommendation 2: Reorganize the department into two bureaus, an Operations bureau and a Support Services bureau to facilitate the introduction of a CompStat policing model. The Police Chief noted that few, if any, sergeants have applied for promotion to lieutenant, while lieutenants have indicated an unwillingness to compete for promotion to captain. Management Partners researched the role of compensation in this occurrence. We researched salary schedules and total compensation actually earned by rank to determine if gross earnings might play a role in the unwillingness to compete for promotions. The table below shows the result of our research. Management Partners, Inc. 9

14 TABLE 3: SALARY AND AVERAGE GROSS EARNING BY RANK (THROUGH 6/24/05) General Fund Overtime Special Duty Overtime Average Gross Earnings Rank Average Salary Total Overtime Chief of Police $100, $100,395 Captain $82, $82,238 Lieutenant $71,869 $9,020 $13,106 $22,126 $93,995 Sergeant $66,972 $12,695 $7,221 $19,916 $86,888 Detective $63,008 $11,109 $7,926 $19,035 $82,043 Patrol Officer $57,041 $6,020 $7,295 $13,315 $70,356 Table 3 demonstrates the amount of overtime earned on average per officer from General Fund dollars as well as private sector dollars for Special Duty Overtime, the average total amount of overtime paid, and what the average gross earnings are for each rank within the Police Department. From the information provided to Management Partners by the Town, it appears that a total of $840,626 of overtime was paid to officers of all ranks last year from the General Fund of Manchester, and $764,856 was paid from Special Duty assignments, for a total of $1,605,482. Both sergeants and lieutenants have average gross earnings greater than captains, 5.65% and 14.3% higher respectively. Also, the average gross earning spread between lieutenants and sergeants is only 8.18%. While it is certainly an industry characteristic that sworn personnel are willing to work overtime and should be compensated, when the situation results in an economic penalty for accepting a promotion, that issue must be addressed. Special Duty pay is a regional phenomenon in New England whereby local police are substituted for flaggers when work is done in the public right-of-way. The local ordinance requiring special duty officers rather than flaggers at certain locations throughout Manchester exacerbates the salary compression issue as long as certain classes of officers are prohibited or excluded for eligibility for special duty overtime assignments. A modest step toward addressing the compression problem, and one that supports the Chief s movement toward the CompStat police services model, is to create the rank of Deputy Chief. If the salary for the Deputy Chief position were established in the mid-$90,000 range, the economic advantage of being promoted is restored. Furthermore, the title of Deputy Chief will be attractive to lieutenants, especially those who have career ambitions of becoming a Police Chief. While we are not inherently recommending a change in the Captain s salary, having a deputy slot above them gives lower ranking officers something to set as a goal. Recommendation 3: Create one Deputy Chief position. As explained above, the CompStat policing model relies heavily on information and analysis. The current organization model does not provide the appropriate support and resources to fulfill the CompStat model s needs for information and analysis. The Chief has been trying to Management Partners, Inc. 10

15 use a lieutenant with many other duties to gather information and provide analysis. This is a clearly unsatisfactory solution. Our review indicated that the duties of the Professional Standards Lieutenant do not require full-time attention. That position has the available time needed to assume responsibility for crime analysis and CompStat support. However, that position cannot provide all the CompStat support needed. The Accreditation Manager, a civilian position that is currently vacant, should be filled with a civilian having the appropriate skills for crime analysis, CompStat support and accreditation. This organizational plan would provide two full-time positions for the crime analysis and CompStat support needed for successful implementation of that policing model. These two positions would also be responsible for accreditation renewal. Recommendation 4: Assign the Professional Standards Lieutenant with additional responsibility for crime analysis, CompStat support, and accreditation. Recommendation 5: Fill the Accreditation Manager position with an appropriately skilled civilian, who has the requisite skills to do crime analysis and CompStat support, to report to the Professional Standards Lieutenant Both of these positions should initially work directly with and for the Chief, in close coordination with the Deputy Chief and Captains until the Chief is satisfied that accreditation has been accomplished and CompStat has been fully internalized by all staff such that CompStat has become central to the philosophy and culture of the Department. However, this can be accommodated within the structure outlined above. In the current organizational plan, the records function is under one captain and the communications function is under a different captain. This organizational arrangement differs from the norm in most police agencies that have operational responsibility for emergency communications. Communications and records generate the data that is used for crime analysis and CompStat support. It is important that they work hand-in-glove. The Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system design must be precisely coordinated with the CompStat information requirements. In addition, the records/reporting design must fill in the information needs that cannot be met through CAD. Data that is not automatically generated by the CAD must be met through the records/reporting function. The records/reporting function is often the Achilles heel of the system due to data entry backlogs. Police agencies that successfully employ the CompStat model have found that delayed information is as bad as no information. Thus, the key is to carefully integrate the CAD and records/reporting systems so that most, if not all, data is being entered on a real-time basis with very little being left to data entry systems days after the fact. The Manchester Police Department has implemented a system that has the capacity to generate real-time information. Management Partners, Inc. 11

16 Recommendation 6: Unify records and communications under a single command. The Administrative Records Supervisor position is currently vacant. This creates an opportunity to employ a person with the skills to lead the development of an integrated communications and records operation designed to deliver the information needed for CompStat. Day-to-day supervision of the records function should be handled by designation of one of the Account Clerk positions in that agency as a lead or supervising position. In the Communications unit, senior or lead dispatchers have already been designated for shift command responsibility. This would result in a no more than six direct reports to the director of the consolidated operation. Recommendation 7: Recruit a senior manager for the unified records and communications functions, whose primary responsibility will be to implement a crime analysis and deployment planning information system to support CompStat. The current head of communications (who may retire in 2006) is also functioning as part of the Department s informal IT Team, composed of the head of communications, a Police Officer who is very knowledgeable about records, and an IT professional on loan from the Town s IT Group. The duties and skills of these people should be examined closely to identify key skill areas important to the senior manager position recommended above. Also, the Department ought to look forward to obtaining all of its IT support from non-sworn professional. Staffing Considerations Staffing Efficiency In our examination of police departments, Management Partners distinguishes between positions that are providing direct service to citizens and positions that primarily provide support to those positions providing direct service. For example, an officer assigned to a beat or to robbery investigations provides direct service. An officer assigned to the Special Detail Office to schedule personnel for assignments would be a support person. Typically, higher ranking sworn personnel, from lieutenants on up in rank, are classified as support personnel because their job as a manager requires that most of their time be spent in contact with other sworn personnel rather than citizens requiring service. Normally, civilian positions in a police agency fill support roles but there are exceptions to the norm. For example, when a police agency has school-crossing guards and parking control officers, they are usually nonsworn personnel who provide a direct service to citizens. Management Partners, Inc. 12

17 The purpose of this type of analysis is to determine what percentage of staffing is allocated to direct service as compared with support. This is a rough measure of efficiency in the deployment of human resources. Table 4 shows how personnel staffing in the Manchester Police Department is divided between direct service and support service. TABLE 4: STAFFING BY DIRECT SERVICE AND SUPPORT POSITIONS Rank/Title Total # # Direct % Direct # Support % Support Police Chief % Captain % Lieutenant % Sergeant % 1 6% Detective % 0 0% Patrol Officer % 0 0% Total Sworn % 11 8% Civilian % % Total All % % Our analysis indicates that 8% of the sworn force of the department is engaged in activities that are primarily support in nature. This is a relatively low level of sworn personnel in support positions and the overall deployment, considering both sworn and civilian staff, has 86% of the department engaged in direct service jobs. These ratios represent deployment patterns different than is typical in the industry, where our experience among many jurisdictions has shown that 25% to 30% of personnel in police agencies provide support services. The Manchester has done an excellent job in directing sworn personnel from support activities that can reasonably be handled by non-sworn staff. The department is also directing most of its civilian staff to direct service activities such as call taking while the Police Service Aides spend much of their time dealing with citizens. The department should be congratulated for its achievements in this regard. One of the contributing reasons for this highly efficient use of sworn and civilian resources is likely the enormous respect that sworn and civilian staff has for one another. In the employee survey administered as an element of this project, staff was asked about how well sworn and nonsworn staff works together. Ninety-five percent of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that sworn and non-sworn staff works well together. This far exceeds what we have found in other police agencies, where it is more typical to find distance and disaffection between these two employee groups. This teamwork and support is a real strength of the department and has no doubt played a major role in helping the staff cope with the issues it faces. Differential Response A trend that is gaining momentum in the industry is differential response. This protocol provides that not all calls for service will receive a response Management Partners, Inc. 13

18 from a uniformed patrol officer. Service calls of a lower priority that meet certain characteristics, which would likely result in the officer going only to take a report, would not result in the dispatch of a patrol unit. In the case of the Manchester, there are 7 priority levels being used currently. The following table shows examples of calls for service types associated with each priority level. TABLE 5: SAMPLE CALL TYPES BY PRIORITY Priority 1 Priority 2 Priority 3 Priority 4 Priority 5 Priority 6 Priority 7 BURGLARY-IN PROGRESS ROBBERY ASSAULT/KNIFE BOMB FOUND BREACH OF PEACE BURGLARY ATTEMPTED BURGLARY TO MV BICYCLE PROBLEM ABANDONED VEHICLE VEHICLE LOCKOUT FEED PRISONERS WATER SEWER COMPLAINTS CELL CHECK JUNKPAWN VIOLATION For example, a call where a person returns home at the end of the day, finds a broken window, no sign of entry and no apparent suspect nearby would be directed to a telephone report taker immediately. In most jurisdictions this type of call for service, if attended by a patrol unit, is already the lowest priority and gets a unit response when there are no higher priority calls being serviced. In most cases the response time can run to hours rather than minutes, leading to citizen frustration and a perception of poor service. The differential response protocol would immediately transfer such calls to a trained report taker to obtain the required information, answer any questions about the situation, without the need to wait for service. Differential response provides an appropriate and timely service response depending upon the call for service. In addition to the improved service benefit to the citizen, the law enforcement benefit is that officers are not dispatched to an incident that does not require the use of police powers. This increases the time they have available for directed patrol and proactive prevention tactics. A program of differential response is an essential element of all successful CompStat police services models. Of the 52,000 calls for service dispatched in 2004, 51,000 were priority three or lower. The average call in-service time takes almost 53 minutes in Manchester, based on the average we found in the data provided. If only 10% of the calls were transferred to a telephone report taker, then Management Partners, Inc. 14

19 4,593 hours of patrol officer time would be available for more critical work, such as officer-initiated activities. Recommendation 8: Implement a formal differential response program and a community information campaign to inform citizens of the level of service they can expect. Differential response has been implemented in a number of ways. The most effective means that we have observed is the creation of a telephone-reporting unit (TRU). Appropriate calls to a 911 center are triaged and sent to the TRU. The report is taken by the TRU and then directed to the appropriate follow-up unit for action. Most protocols default to dispatching a unit if there is any question as to whether the call fits the profile for diversion to the TRU, or if a citizen insists upon having a unit dispatched. If 10% of the calls for service were diverted to a TRU, this would average out to 14 calls per day. The TRU may be staffed in a variety of ways. Some especially large agencies use sworn personnel on light-duty and administrative leave to staff the unit. Other agencies, usually smaller in size, have a dedicated staff for the TRU with staffing numbers based on demand. Yet other agencies use a combination of sworn personnel on light duty or administrative leave along with dedicated staff. We believe that the TRU could be blended into the operation of the Communications Center. This would have to be factored into the staffing of the Center and is discussed in more detail in the section of this report that details that operation. Recommendation 9: Implement a telephone-reporting unit as an element of the Communication Center. A department task force should be created to examine this best practice and develop the protocols for diverting calls to a TRU. The protocols should identify what types of calls might be diverted to a TRU, what type calls might be handled by another department, and what calls might be handled by a civilian staff member on an appointment basis. After protocols have been established, a detailed workload and staffing plan should be executed. This plan should also assess the potential of using light duty and administrative leave personnel for staffing, as well as nonsworn personnel such as Police Service Aides or Cadets. Patrol Staffing Management Partners hoped to address a central question concerning police operations in Manchester as part of its analysis: what is the appropriate staffing level for patrol operations? Management Partners, Inc. 15

20 Patrol staffing is a function of demand for service, officer availability, and patrol planning standards. To determine the appropriate staffing level, data that shows how much time patrol officers spend responding to calls for service must be available and reliable. We must also be able to calculate the average amount of time an officer is actually available for patrol. When these numbers are known, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) standard for patrol planning can be applied. To determine the appropriate staffing level for patrol operations, we researched standards used by IACP, learned the priorities of the Chief, and researched the actual experience of the department regarding demand for service and staff availability. We then used a series of simple formulas to take into account each of these variables to determine the number of personnel at the police officer rank that should be assigned to handle calls for service. The first analysis we performed determined the average number of hours per year an officer is available to patrol. Officers are scheduled to work forty hours a week for fifty-two weeks a year, an annual total of 2080 hours. From that schedule it is necessary to deduct the amount of time an officer is not available due to sick time, vacation usage, injury leave, training, fixed post duties, and special event assignment. It is also necessary to determine the average number of hours lost due to separations (retirements, resignations, dismissals) during the course of a year. The total of the unavailability factors is deducted from the scheduled work time to determine the average number of hours a police officer is actually available to handle calls for service. This availability calculation is shown below: Annual Scheduled Hours (40 hours/week x 52 weeks)... 2,080 hours Average Sick Time hours Average Vacation Time hours Average Compensatory Time Used hours Average Holiday Time Earned hours Average Leave without Pay hours Average Leave with Pay hours Earned Day Used hours Hours available after deducting average time off... 1,699 hours Manchester has a requirement of forty hours of annual in-service training. The impact on availability is as follows: 1 Based on actual 2004 data. Management Partners, Inc. 16

21 Scheduled Training hours Hours available after average time off and training... 1,659 hours The Radio Demand data provided indicated that there were 1,443 hours of fixed posts and other assignments made that took away from patrol time of officers in Given that there were 77 officers assigned patrol duties, these assignments took away 19 hours from availability for patrol duties. These included special assignments, school posts, traffic posts and undercover work. The impact of these assignments on availability is as follows. Average fixed post time hours Hours available after all deductions for availability... 1,640 hours During the course of every year separations from service occur for retirements, resignations, and dismissals. These occurrences further reduce the amount of time that is available for answering calls for service. In fact, one of the difficulties reported elsewhere that the department also faces is the challenge of filling vacant positions, given the limited number of trainees that are able to place in the state training program. The Town of Manchester budget used a figure of 5.5 full time equivalents (FTEs) as a position vacancy adjustment for the current budget. The Police Department attempts to reduce the impact on patrol by reducing officers in specialized units, and this has the effect of reducing the impact of vacant positions to about 3.5 FTEs on the number of hours available for patrol. This results in an average number of hours that must be deducted per officer of about 69 hours. This figure is for all ranks, but typically has its impact at the officer level since separations at higher ranks are usually replaced by promotions from lower ranks. Consequently, separations typically trickle down to the Police Officer rank. The estimated number of annual labor hours lost due to this factor equals 5, Divided by 83 authorized Police Officer positions, the average per position is approximately 69 hours. This accounts for the final factor impacting availability for answering calls for service. This final calculation is as follows. Hours lost due to separations hours Hours Available for Patrol... 1,571 hours After determining the number of hours actually available for patrol, it is then necessary to determine how those hours are allocated among onduty activities. The IACP recommends that best practice in patrol planning use a planning target of 33% available for calls for service, 33% available for directed patrol and officer initiated activity, and 33% available for administrative activities such as report writing and crime analysis. Applying the standard of 33% of available patrol hours to calls for service has the following result in staffing analysis: Management Partners, Inc. 17

22 Hours available for Patrol (1,571) multiplied by 33% = 519 hours available to answer calls for service. We analyzed actual 2004 calls for service data in order to determine the total time spent on calls for service. The data revealed the actual number of calls for service and the average response and service time (the number of minutes from the time a unit is dispatched to the time when that unit reports it is again available to respond to another service call) per call. Our projection indicates that total service and response time in 2004 was 38,630 hours. Given the data provided above, it is estimated that Officers are spending over 49% of their time on Patrol responding to calls for service. While the current situation is not ideal, the Department has managed resources very well. Recommendation 10: Adopt the IACP standard of 33% of an Officers time being devoted to calls for service as a goal for determining appropriate staffing for Patrol. The final calculation to determine the staffing requirements based on 2004 estimated demand is to divide the projected response and service time, 38,630 hours, by the number of hours available to answer calls for service, 519 hours. However, there is an adjustment we should make, based on an earlier recommendation. If a Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU) is established and 10% of all priority 3 or lower calls are diverted to it, the total call demand drops to 34,037 hours. That calculation is as follows: 2004 response and service hours, 34,037 divided by hours available to answer calls for service, 519 hours = 66 officers. Thus, based on the 2004 experience for all relevant considerations a total of 66 police officer positions should be assigned to patrol activities. To recap, the calculation used to determine district patrol staffing requirements is as follows. Annual Scheduled Hours (40 hours/week x 52 weeks...2,080 Hours Average Sick Time hours Average Vacation Time hours Average Compensatory Time Used hours Average Holiday Time earned hours Average Leave without Pay... 5 hours Average Leave with Pay hours Earned Day Used hours Average fixed post time hours Scheduled Training hours Hours lost due to separations hours Management Partners, Inc. 18

23 Total Hours Available for Patrol... 1,571 hours 30% Calls for Service Hours Allocation Response and Service Hours (Adjusted)... 34,037 Officers required to cover Response and Service Hours Recommendation 11: Establish patrol staffing at a level of 66 Police Officer positions. An aggressive effort should be made to maintain this staffing level. Recommendation 12: Establish patrol staffing annually by using actual experience to calculate hours available for patrol, the IACP 33% standard for calls for service, the number of hours used for calls for service, and applying the above model. The workload analysis indicated that patrol resource deployment was not optimally matched to demand on the midnight shift. The hours of 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. are extremely slow in terms of demand yet there are a minimum of eight units on the street during that time. Deployment of the 66 positions needed for patrol duties would be better matched to demand by the creation of an overlap shift, sometimes known as a power shift. The optimal times for the power shift would be from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. to match peak demand. The analysis also indicated that the power shift would not be needed on Sunday. Based on adjusted 2004 workload, shift staffing levels match demand best with the following deployment. TABLE 6: OPTIMAL PATROL SHIFT STAFFING Shift Schedule # of Officers Midnight 8 a.m a.m. 4 p.m p.m. - Midnight 23 7 p.m. 3 a.m. 6 Recommendation 13: Establish a power shift from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. to better match demand for service. The current labor agreement authorizes the Police Chief to establish such a shift and sets forth the methodology for assignment of personnel to the shift. First Line Supervision The IACP standard for the ratio of officers to sergeants is a range of six to ten officers per sergeant. In Manchester, there are 77 officers positions assigned to patrol and 12 sergeants, a ratio of just over six to one. This is the low end of the recommended range. However, sergeants as a group have amassed the highest average hours of overtime, averaging over 500 Management Partners, Inc. 19

24 hours paid, and earned a total of $302,457 in overtime compensation. Minimum staffing requirements and traffic posts are the major reasons for overtime. While not all overtime will be eliminated by hiring additional Sergeants, it is within the realm of reality that some of the overtime expense could be directed to budgeting for two additional sergeants and result in an overall cost reduction. A reduction of the average sergeant s gross earnings would also relieve some of the salary compression being experienced and explained earlier in this report. This could also have the positive impact of increasing the number of sergeants willing to compete for promotions. Recommendation 14: Analyze the causes of sergeant overtime and determine the impact of adding two additional sergeant positions on overall cost. If the overall cost equation would be favorable by adding two sergeant positions, then it is recommended that these positions be added to the complement. However, this should not occur until police officer staffing has reached a satisfactory level. Otherwise, promotion of two police officers to sergeant would only compound the staffing issues at the patrol officer rank and would likely result in still more overtime cost at that level, offsetting any potential cost savings gained at the sergeant level. Recommendation 15: Analyze the causes of overtime for all ranks and develop strategies to reduce overtime costs. Investigative Services Staffing Investigate Services currently has a lieutenant, a sergeant and 12 detectives authorized and filled. There are no standards that have been promulgated for calculating a staffing to workload ratio for investigators. This is due primarily to the vast disparity among the types of cases being investigated. Some jurisdictions use an effectiveness measure, such as case clearance rate, to evaluate performance. However, even those agencies doing this do not espouse that there is a direct relationship between case clearance rate and authorized personnel strength. Interviews with investigative unit supervisors indicated their belief that better results would be achieved with more staff. Unquestionably, crime solution is a critical element to crime prevention, a prime objective of CompStat police service models. The methodology that successful CompStat practitioners use to enhance crime solution is to generate time from patrol staff to apply to analysis and solution. Management Partners, Inc. 20

25 Recommendation 16: Build on the CompStat model to improve solutions to crimes, not adding more investigators. Once Patrol Staffing issues have been addressed, this issue might be revisited. Implementation of the CompStat model in Manchester should focus on creating the resources, primarily technical, informational and analytical, that will drive the effort. After these are in place, the Field Service Bureau Commander would have the flexibility to move resources between patrol and investigations based on tactical considerations. In a later section of this report we discuss in detail the operational issues confronting the patrol unit as a result of staffing shortages. Authorizing more detectives at this time would exacerbate the situation in patrol since additional detectives would be promoted from current patrol officers. This presents an additional reason to wait until CompStat has been fully operationalized before considering the need for additional investigative staff. Operational Issues Gang Issues Gang related issues are assuming a higher profile in the Manchester criminal environment. The Chief asked that we provide some insight into the best practices regarding gang issues. Based on our research, we recommend formation of a Gang Collaborative in the region. The collaborative would include law enforcement agencies in neighboring jurisdictions and the state. It would also include representatives from corrections, probation, parole, schools and social services. Santa Clara County, California offers an excellent model for a collaborative. When we requested written material on the collaborative, it was suggested that more would be learned by a telephone contact with the commander of the San Jose Police Department Gang Investigations Unit. We will furnish under separate cover the name and contact number of the commander. Recommendation 17: Task the commander of the Investigative Services Bureau with contacting the San Jose Gang Investigations Unit to discuss the structure and function of the Santa Clara County Gang Collaborative. Recommendation 18: Task the commander of the Investigative Services Bureau with preparing a blueprint for establishing a gang collaborative in the region. Management Partners, Inc. 21

26 Recommendation 19: Pursue the necessary steps to establish a gang collaborative in the region through the efforts of the Police Chief, with the assistance and leadership of the General Manager and the Mayor. False Alarms Currently, the dispatches a patrol unit in response to automated home/business alarms. Manchester s experience with automated alarm responses is comparable to national experience over 98% of automated alarm responses are false alarms. Records indicate that last year patrol units consumed nearly 1,000 hours responding to false alarms. Manchester has employed the same type of tactic that many other jurisdictions have used when faced with this issue levying of a fine after a given number of false alarms. The hope is that such a system would reduce the number of false alarms. Based on interview results with patrol commanders, this has not occurred. False alarms are concerns for reasons other than wasted time. Responses create officer safety issues. Automated alarms create the expectation of rapid response, which most departments attempt to meet. Most vehicular accidents and officer injuries in vehicular accidents occur during emergency response mode. Another officer safety issue is the conditioned response created within the officer. Since such a high percentage of automated alarms are false alarms, officers are conditioned to expect a false alarm. This conditioning tends to defeat even the best preparedness training. Officers are on scene with less than appropriate attentiveness and seldom prepared for a dangerous encounter. It is also a common experience that the cost of collecting false alarm fines rarely pays for itself. In addition, police agencies are reluctant to use aggressive tactics to collect fines. One approach that might be more effective at reducing the number of false alarms is to continue to levy fines but instead of fining the alarm user, require alarm providers to be licensed and to remit false alarm fines as a condition of licensing. Failure to remit fines in a timely manner results in loss of license, and more importantly to the company, response refusal by the police department. The reality is that alarm providers are not selling an alarm as much as they are selling the police department response to the alarm. It would be better to make explicit the true business relationship in a direct manner by having the alarm provider assume responsibility for reducing the incidence of false alarms. Police departments in Brockton, Massachusetts, Topeka, Kansas, and Louisville, Kentucky are studying this mechanism for reducing the false alarm rate. Since this recommendation requires legislative enactment by way of ordinance, implementation is time-consuming and requires the approval of the Board of Directors. Management Partners, Inc. 22

27 Recommendation 20: Require companies selling automated alarm service to be licensed. Recommendation 21: Require automated alarm purveyors to pay the cost of false alarm fines as a condition of licensing. Recommendation 22: Revoke a provider s license and refuse to respond to alarms where the provider refuses to pay false alarm fines or exceeds the threshold of the number of allowable false alarms. Traffic Unit The Traffic Unit consists of a working supervisor (sergeant) and four officers. All members of the Traffic Unit are certified accident reconstruction specialists. The unit works closely with other jurisdictions in the region to provide traffic law enforcement, such as check points, at high hazard times. The unit operates seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The commander indicated that the unit stays current with the workload but could enact a higher level of enforcement with additional resources. Traffic complaints are transmitted to the unit via a written form. The unit investigates each complaint and a written response is returned up the chain of command. However, the unit commander was not sure if the result of the complaint investigation is forwarded to the complainant. Training Recommendation 23: Establish procedures to ensure that complainants receive the results of investigations of traffic complaints. Training for meeting state personnel re-certification requirements is well planned and organized. The department s sergeant who coordinates training uses many sources to identify relevant training issues. Training events for these purposes are generally provided through a contractor who works with all the police agencies in the region to identify training needs. As a result, training costs associated with re-certifications are typically very economical. There are two potential improvements in this area that the training coordinator could implement: Recommendation 24: Administer a structured survey of training participants and their supervisors for feedback on training effectiveness. Management Partners, Inc. 23

28 Recommendation 25: Prepare and administer an annual training needs survey the results of which would be used to develop immediate and intermediate department training plans. Training that is not a result of state re-certification requirements is more reactionary and spur-of-the-moment. Training resources are too few and precious to tolerate this condition. Discretionary training should be a function of a plan that is based on a needs survey, as noted above, individual professional development plans, and an assessment of gaps in skills in the department. This type of analysis should result in a two-year department training plan for discretionary training. Recommendation 26: Develop a two-year department training plan for discretionary training. Field Training Officers The Department does have a Field Training Officer (FTO) program. However, we found that the selection of FTOs is not clearly related to performance evaluations. Recommendation 27: Link selection of Field Training Officers to formal performance evaluations. By selecting excellent performers who buy-in to the vision and mission of the department, new recruits are more likely to fulfill the department s expectations. At least six months of guidance should be afforded a new officer. Formal evaluations should be conducted at least twice during this period to assure that new officers are meeting expectations. The department s command staff should collect FTO models from other police departments, review these models and adapt them to Manchester. Typically, Field Training Officers are paid a few thousand dollars a year extra when they are actually training new officers, and there may be some additional costs associated with training the FTOs. Reno, Nevada has an excellent FTO model. Police Dispatch Facilities and Operations The Department currently has 16 call taker/dispatchers on staff. The Communications and Dispatch facility of the Manchester Police Department receives approximately 83,000 calls per year on the E-911 system and the department s business line. Civilian dispatchers handle this incoming call traffic. From these calls, approximately 68,000 dispatch transmissions are consequently made. The Police Communications section dispatches some 52,000 calls to police units, and 16,000 calls for Management Partners, Inc. 24